This invention is directed to an apparatus for the rapid, continuous and waterless or essentially waterless dyeing of textile and plastic materials. Due to the current emphasis upon pollution control and interest in protecting the environment, it is evident that more effective measures for pollution control of industrial machinery are becoming increasingly necessary in view of the stringency of the controls and the high cost of implementing them which, in many cases, must be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. In the case of dye plants, it is extremely expensive to treat the effluents therefrom, and in some cases an effluent treatment sufficient to bring about approval by environmental protection authorities is nowadays prohibitively expensive. There are communities, in fact, throughout various parts of the world that do not even allow dyeing and finishing plants to be located within their borders due to their attendant pollution problems.
The present invention relates to a dyeing apparatus for dyeing textiles and plastic materials that will eliminate or substantially eliminate all polluting effluents as well as the air pollution that might otherwise result from the dyeing operation. After the initial capital expenditure for the necessary machinery, the apparatus described hereinafter is relatively inexpensive to operate and, in an energy-conscious world, requires considerably less energy to keep in operation. This latter is in and of itself a most attractive feature of the apparatus in these days of expensive energy and anticipated energy shortages in the very near future.